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A  STUDY  IN  PEDAGOGY. 


A  STUDY  IN   PEDAGOGY 


FOR  PEOPLE  WHO   ARE    NOT   PROFESSIONAL 
TEACHERS. 


3^  S 


BY 

BISHOP    JOHN    H.    VINCENT. 


NEW  YORK : 
WILBUR     B.     K  E  T  C  H  A  M, 

13    COOPER    UNION. 


Copyright,  1890, 
By  WILBUR  B.  KETCH  AM. 


\ 


Y^.. 


A  FORE-LOOK,      ...  .- 

4    fv- 


Leaders  and  People  must  be  in  Sympathy,  9 ;    The 
People's  Clamor  To-day,  9,  10 ;  All  Classes  Need  Educa- 
tion,   10;    Charles    Kingsley's    Theory,  11;    This    not  a 
Scientific  Treatise,  11  ;  A  Word  of  Help  for  "  The  Peo- 
ple," 12;  The  People  and  the  Public  Schools,  12;  Edu- 
cation Defined  as  an  Art  and  as  a  Science,  12 ;  The  Four 
Subjects  to  be  Discussed,  13  ;  The  Art  of  Education,  14; 
Education  of  Plants,    14;    of   Animals,    15;    Difference 
between  the  Education  of  Plants  and  Animals  and  of  a 
,^Boy,   17;    The  Education  of   the  Will,   18;    Education 
.   Empirical  and  Scientific,  19  ;  The  Element  of  Freedom  in 
K\ Education,  20;    "Look   Steadily — Once,"  22;    Scolding 
'  Pupils  for  Inattention,  24;  Certain  Important  Laws,  24; 
JTeachers  and  Methods,  25  ;  The  Educating  Instinct,  25  ; 
The  Ancient  Pedagogue,  26 ;  His  Faults,  27. 

Mother  as  Teacher,  27  ;  Everybody  Teaches,  28 ; 
Emerson  on  Society  as  a  School,  29;  The  "  Special 
Agencies  "  in  Education,  29 ;  The  Picture  of  the  Ship 
that  made  Sailors,  30 ;  Pictures  as  Lessons,  32 ;  Shams 

[3] 


A  Fore-Look.  4 

in  Art,  33 ;  Teaching  Power  of  the  School-house,  33 ;  of 
Dress,  34 ;  of  Slang,  34 ;  The  Street  as  a  School,  35  ;  Picto- 
rial Lessons,  36;  The  Daily  Papers,  38. 

Special  Educational  Agencies — The  Church,  40 ;  Edu- 
cation and  Faith,  41  ;  Mysteries  in  Religion,  42  ;  True 
Religious  Faith,  45;  Soul  Value,  46;  Matthew  Arnold 
and  "Conduct,"  46;  Tyndall  and  the  German  Soldiers, 
46 ;  The  False  Church  Ideas,  47 ;  Children  and  the 
Church,  47  ;  The  Pastor,  48 ;  The  Roman  Catholic  Pre- 
tence, 49 ;  The  Secret  of  Romish  Fear  of  the  Public 
Schools,  52 ;  Formal  Religious  Recognitions  in  the  Day 
School  Unnecessary,  52  ;  Home  as  a  School,  53  ;  Laws  of 
Teaching — Desire,  54;  Resolve,  55;  Definiteness  and 
Accuracy,  55;  Moral  Conviction,  55;  Philanthropic  In- 
tent, 56 ;  Expression,  57. 

On  Helping  Public  School  Children  to  get  their  Les- 
sons, 57  ;  How  to  Create  an  Interest  in  Knowledge,  58  ; 
Huxley  on  Examinations,  58 ;  The  True  Work  of  the 
School,  59;  the  Press,  60;  Books,  61. 

The  Choice  of  a  Home  with  Educational  Intent,  64; 
What  may  be  done  in  a  Crowded  City,  65  ;  Village  Im- 
provement, 67 ;  Home  Culture,  68 ;  Letting  Children 
Alone,  71;  The  Local  Village  Congress  for  Discussing 
Educational  Topics,  72. 


BEFORE   BEGINNING. 


Before  beginning  this  practical  little  tractate 
— a  word  of  forecast  ! 

Every  man  and  woman  in  this  Nation  should 
have  what  Montesquieu  commends  :  "  The  desire 
to  augment  the  excellence  of  our  nature  and  to 
render  an  intelligent  being  more  intelligent." 

Out  of  this  desire  must  spring  every  true 
effort  to  promote  education.  And  if  the  desire 
be  intense  and  steady,  and  if  the  effort  be  guided 
by  wisdom,  keen  and  comprehensive,  we  shall 
have  as  a  result  a  true  philosophy  working  out 
in  true  methods. 

But  the  people  at  large  must  know  this  phi- 
losophy, and  work  it  out  on  a  large  scale.  Thus 
the  true  education  will  come  to  be  the  "  popular 
education  "  which  our  reformers  talk  about  so 
much  in  these  latter  days. 

[5] 


Before   Beginning. 


If  the  people  are  to  be  won  to  these  thoughts 
they  must  be  talked  to  in  a  plain  and  frank  way. 
Fathers,  mothers,  grandfathers,  grandmothers, 
brothers,  sisters,  servants,  preachers,  clerks, 
editors,  merchants,  school-teachers,  bill-posters, 
and  news  boys — a  multitude — who  help  in  never 
so  slight  a  way  to  make  public  sentiment,  must 
be  stirred  to  wise  desire  and  then  set  at  work 
to  put  wise  desire  into  wise  endeavor. 

Concerning  the  "  desire  "  Montesquieu  speaks 
of  and  the  "effort"  it  must  beget,  and  the  "wis- 
dom "  to  be  consulted,  and  the  "  ways  "  so  mani- 
fold to  be  employed,  and  the  "multitude"  of 
teachers,  professional  and  non-professional,  to  be 
enlisted — all  for  the  promotion  of  "  popular 
education" — it  has  been  the  purpose  of  the 
author  to  write  in  the  following  pages  ;  and  so 
to  write  as  that  some  indifferent  parents  and 
other  people  may  see  what  a  great  work  is  before 
them,  and  seeing  may  approve  and  perform. 

This  great  end  is  the  author's  aim — at  least  so 
murh  of  the  end  as  he  may  be  permitted  to  com- 
pass. His  thoughts  are  not  new  and  they  may 
not  reach  many  readers  ;  but  he  hopes  that  some- 
how, through    this   and    through  the   efforts    of 


Before   Beginning. 


others,  many  people  may  be  helped  into  keener 
conviction  and  firmer  purpose  as  to  the  best 
education  and  the  means  of  furthering  it. 

John  H.  Vincent. 
Buffalo,  N.  V. 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 


A  recent  lecturer  on  educational  topics  in  the 
University  of  Jena  said,  "The  nationality  of  the 
Greeks  declined  from  the  moment  when  the  philo- 
sophically cultivated  separated  themselves  from 
the  mass  of  the  people."  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  case,  or  the  necessities  of  the  case,  with 
the  Greeks,  it  goes  without  saying,  that  in  a 
republic  like  our  own,  those  who  are  known  as 
the  thinking  men — philosophers,  and  those  who 
are  known  as  working  men — merchants  and 
mechanics,  must  keep  in  close  proximity,  breath- 
ing the  same  free  air,  rejoicing  in  the  same  clear 
light,  seeking  the  same  high  ends,  and  giving 
mutual  help. 

We  live  in  a  day  of  popular  uprisings.  The 
people  demand  a  hearing  from  the  influential 

[9] 


lo  A  Study  ill  Pedagogy. 

classes,  the  leaders  of  men  who  have  insight, 
comprehensive  knowledge,  financial  resources, 
and  who  for  these  or  other  reasons  hold  respon- 
sible civil  and  social  positions.  The  people  when 
they  speak,  have  a  right  to  be  heard  ;  and  those 
who  by  good  fortune,  by  the  wise  use  of  natural 
talent,  or  by  providential  assignment,  hold  places 
of  power  are  bound  to  heed  the  call  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  to  sympathize  with  and  to  help  them,  that 
the  oppressed  and  neglected  mass  may  not  be 
compelled  to  cry  in  Pascal's  words  of  protest 
spoken  in  their  behalf,  against  the  arrogant 
philosophers  of  his  day,  "Ye  pass  for  the  salt  of 
the  earth  ;  wherewith  do  ye  salt  our  lives  ?" 

Whatever  hope  may  come  from  capital  and 
legislation,  the  best  help  that  philosophy  can 
give  to  labor  is — philosophy.  What  the  so-called 
"  lower  classes  '  need  is  what  the  scholars  of  the 
highest  have — education  ;  for  it  is  true  education 
that  puts  the  individual  at  his  best,  increasing  his 
ability  for  service  of  every  honorable  l<ind, 
teaching  him  to  know  himself,  of  what  qualitv  he 
is,  and  what  are  his  adaptations  ;  exalting  his 
standards  of  life,  giving  him  compensations  for 
misfortune,  inspiring  companionship  in  solitude 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  1 1 

useful  occupation  during  enforced  leisure,  and 
augmenting  his  worth  as  a  member  of  the  fam- 
ily, the  church,  and  the  nation.  "If  I  had  my 
way,"  said  Charles  Kingsley,  "  I  would  give  the 
same  education  to  the  child  of  the  collier  and  to 
the  child  of  the  king."  In  the  same  spirit  and 
with  similar  motive  would  I  put  the  means  of 
education,  the  power  of  self-education,  and  the 
ability  to  educate,  within  reach  of  the  people, 
and  especially  of  parents  whose  opinions,  max- 
ims, and  habits  of  every-day  life  have  so  large  an 
influence  in  determining  the  estimate  which  their 
children  are  to  place  on  education,  and  in  direct- 
ing the  education  which  is  of  necessity,  to  begin 
so  long  before  professional  teachers  have  access 
to  the  subjects  of  it. 

It  is  my  purpose,  in  the  following  pages,  to 
discuss  the  general  subject  of  education,  both  as  a 
science  and  an  art.  I  use  the  term  "  Pedagogy" 
for  a  reason  which  will  in  due  time  appear  ;  but 
I  wish  at  the  outset  to  disclaim  any  intention  of 
treating  the  topic  in  a  formal  or  scientific  way. 
Nor  do  I  aim  at  the  instruction  of  those  who 
are  or  who  expect  to  be  professional  teachers.  I 
write  solely  for  the  helping  of  the  people — the 


12  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

people  whose  children  these  professional  instruct- 
ors are  expected  to  teach  ;  the  people  whose 
interest  and  co-operation  in  education  are  indis- 
pensable to  the  success  of  teachers  and  pupils  ; 
the  people  who  may  themselves,  long  after  their 
own  school  period  is  ended,  continue  to  acquire 
knowledge  and  to  cultivate  tact  in  imparting 
knowledge  ;  the  people  who  are  to  settle  not 
only  the  financial  support  and  social  standing  of 
the  pedagogical  profession,  but  whose  counsels 
and  votes  are  to  determine,  and  that  in  the  near 
future,  the  fate  of  our  public  school  system. 
Will  my  professional  and  scientific  readers, 
kindly  remember  the  simple,  unpretentious,  and 
practical  aim  I  have  thus  so  fully  and  frankly 
avowed  in  advance  ? 

The  art  of  education  is  the  selection,  applica- 
tion, and  regulation  of  the  conditions  and  of  the 
special  agencies  which  act  upon  human  nature  in 
the  development  of  personal  and  social  charac- 
ter. 

The  science  of  education  is  a  systematized 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  with  a  view  to  the 
understanding  and    use  of  the   conditions  and 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  1 3 

special  agencies  which  operate  in  the  develop- 
ment of  personal  and  social  character. 

In  pursuance  of  this  line  of  definition,  it  is 
my  purpose  to  consider, — 

I.  The  nature  and  Aims  of  true  Education. 

II.  The  Conditions  which  affect   Education. 

III.  The  special  Educating  Agencies. 

IV.  The  Selection  and  Control  of  these  Con- 
ditions and  Agencies. 

True  personal  and  social  development  is  Che 
end  of  education.  It  is  as  Ruskin  says  "The 
leading  of  human  souls  to  what  is  best,  and 
making  what  is  best  out  of  them."  The  law  of 
growth  is  the  law  of  life.  The  growth  of  the 
soul  begins  with  the  growth  of  the  body,  and 
continues  indefinitely.  Sometimes  physical  re- 
straints limit  the  intellectual  powers,  dwarf  the 
moral,  and  render  the  executive  impotent.  Ok. 
the  other  hand,  we  often  find  that  with  failing 
physical  energies,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
seem  to  be  augmented.  Whatever  the  mysteri- 
ous relations  and  interdependence  of  soul  and 
body,  education  is  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  end  that  he  may  secure  a  true  char- 
acter, and  be  able  to  use  his  varied  powers  ;  that 


14  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

thus  he  may  be  prepared  for  his  personal  and 
social  responsibilities  as  a  child  of  the  Eternal 
Father,  as  a  member  of  the  great  human  family, 
as  a  citizen  of  this  world,  and  as  a  being  endowed 
with  immortality.  Education  embraces  the  cul- 
ture of  the  man, — physical,  intellectual,  esthetic, 
moral,  and  religious,  and  the  improvement  as 
well,  of  those  executive  powers  by  which  he  is 
enabled  to  express  himself  in  art,  in  language, 
and  in  conduct. 

We  are  not  without  examples  of  educating 
zeal  and  activity  in  this  world.  We  have  watched 
the  putting  of  human  care  and  wisdom  into  a 
plant.  To  what  extent  one  may  see  by  watching 
a  shrub,  vegetable,  or  tree  left  to  itself,  and  one 
of  the  same  character  at  the  beginning,  upon 
which  the  thought,  wisdom,  and  labor  of  its 
owner  are  expended.  He  selects  the  best  place 
and  the  most  favorable  conditions.  He  enriches 
the  soil,  digs  about  and  waters  the  plant,  watches 
its  peculiarities,  clips  and  trims,  shields  it  from 
horses  and  cattle,  protects  it  from  parasites,  and 
in  every  way  that  science  and  experience  suggest 
works  into  the  natural  forces  and  conditions 
which  promote  its  growth  the  added  elements  of 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  15 

human  wisdom  and  labor.  There  is  a  difference 
in  the  outcome  between  the  plant  neglected,  and 
the  plant  protected  and  educated.  This  human 
help  may  turn  unpalatable  and  unwholesome 
fruit  into  fruit  marketable  and  valuable.  Thus 
man  helps  nature  by  educating  it. 

The  same  power  of  education  is  illustrated  in 
the  animal  kingdom.  Wild  animals  are  subdued 
and  taught  by  man.  The  breed  is  improved. 
Habits  are  formed  by  utilizing  the  power  of 
instinct.  The  results  in  this  line  are  remark- 
able. Every  girl  who  has  petted  a  kitten,  every 
boy  who  owns  a  dog,  will  readily  appreciate  this 
susceptibility  to  education  in  the  domestic  ani- 
mals. We  have  seen  trained  horses  whose  per- 
formances seemed  like  the  work  of  the  higher 
intelligence.  We  have  seen  dogs  whose  move- 
ments were  so  wise  and  skillful  as  to  elicit  roars 
of  laughter  and  rounds  of  applause.  We  have 
watched  the  "  learned  pig  "  pick  out  letters,  spell 
names,  select  figures,  and  combine  them  in  arith- 
metical results.  We  have  put  on  our  spectacles 
to  follow  the  operations  of  "educated  fleas," 
who  seem  to  understand  and  deliberately  to  obey 
the   commands   of   their   trainer.     They   pulled 


1 6  A  Shidy  in  Pedagogy. 

threads  which  ran  over  pulleys,  took  their  places 
as  horses  in  front  of  a  liliputian  chariot,  marched 
in  procession,  carried  burdens,  and  seemed  to 
imitate  human  actions  as  though  they  were  im- 
pelled by  an  intelligent  purpose. 

The  students  of  zoology  find  many  insoluble 
problems  when  they  inquire  into  these  phenom- 
ena. The  degree  of  intelligence  in  the  brute 
creation,  the  presence  of  volition  and  of  moral 
quality,  are  open  questions.  The  limits  of  in- 
stinct are  not  comprehended.  It  is,  however, 
certain  that  much  of  the  action  of  so-called 
"  educated  "  animals  is  the  intelligence  not  of 
the  animals  but  of  those  who  control  them,  and 
that  certain  movements  which  seem  to  be  the 
result  of  thought  and  intention  are  wholly  unin- 
telligible to  the  brute  himself.  Given  motions 
of  a  stick  in  the  keeper's  hand  cause  the  pig  on 
exhibition  to  pick  up  certain  letters  and  figures. 
We  wonder  at  the  intelligence  he  displays.  But 
the  intelligence  is  chiefly  that  of  the  exhibitor. 
The  whole  thing  is  a  pleasant  trick,  and  the  edu- 
cation involved  is  not  so  very  remarkable.  There 
is,  however,  an   education   of  animals   by  which 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  1 7 

they  are  rendered  more  useful  to  man,  and  there- 
fore more  valuable  in  the  market. 

The  directing  power  in  vegetable  and  animal 
education  comes  from  without.  Rose-bushes 
and  peach-trees  become  finer  in  quality  of  flower 
and  fruit  by  a  force  of  will  in  their  cultivators, 
but  not  in  themselves.  The  dog  learns  his  tricks, 
not  from  a  will-power  of  his  own,  but  from  that 
of  his  trainer.  He  seems  to  be  responsible  for 
failure,  and  we  strike  him.  He  does  well,  and 
we  pet  and  praise  him.  We  know,  however,  that 
he  is  not  really  blameworthy  nor  praiseworthy. 
If  we  do  smite  it  is  to  associate  pain  with  certain 
action  that  he  may  be  kept  from  repeating  that 
action.  We  give  him  pleasure  when  his  move- 
ment is  according  to  our  intention  or  desire. 
But  the  source  and  center  of  the  whole  move- 
ment is  in  man  the  rational,  and  not  in  Fido,  the 
animal  being. 

The  education  of  a  boy  is  a  different  process. 
He  has,  to  be  sure,  a  physical  and  an  animal  na- 
ture, and  there  are  conditions  of  soil,  surround- 
ings, instinct,  and  habit  which  are  to  be  studied 
very  much  as  we  consult  these  things  in  training 
plants  and  animals.     But  if  we  train  a  boy  only 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 


as  we  train  a  dog  or  an  elephant,  we  shall  not 
have  an  educated  boy.  The  noblest  part  of  him, 
which  is  his  power  of  self-direction,  will  have 
been  neglected.  The  tree  is  at  its  best  what  we 
make  it.  The  horse  is  what  we  make  it.  But 
the  boy  at  his  best  is  what  he  makes  himself. 
The  flower  cannot  decide  what  form,  color,  and 
odor  it  will  have.  The  boy  is  to  decide  for  him- 
self what  aims,  spirit,  and  habits  are  to  control 
his  life. 

True  education  is  the  education  of  the  will. 
It  strengthens  a  weak  will ;  makes  stable  a  fickle 
will ;  provides  knowledge  that  one  may  have 
wisdom  in  the  use  of  his  will ;  and  gives  practice 
in  self-direction  and  control  that  one  may  have 
a  ready,  steady,  strong,  and  unflinching  will. 
Too  much  of  our  boasted  education  is  that  of  the 
vegetable  and  the  animal.  We  must  educate 
rational  beings  to  think,  choose,  and  act  in  a 
rational  way.  All  this  indicates  that  education 
comes  through  forces  operating  both  from  with- 
out and  from  within  ;  and  that  it  is  promoted  by 
certain  conditions  and  by  the  operation  of  cer- 
tain and  special  agencies.  It  is  the  work  of  the 
teacher  to  select,  apply,  and   regulate  these  con- 


A  SttLdy  in  Pedagogy.  19 

ditions  and  agencies,  and  to  secure  on  the  part 
of  his  pupils  freedom,  enthusiasm,  a  voluntary- 
surrender  to  wholesome  influences,  and  a  perse- 
vering self-activity  in  acquisition  and  expression. 

Much  educational  work  is  empirical.  It  aims 
at  art  without  science.  It  experiments  with  the 
intellect  before  it  has  studied  the  laws  of  the 
intellect.  The  basis  of  true  education  is  science 
— the  science  of  mind  and  of  method.  There 
must  be  a  careful  observation  of  mental  and 
moral  phenomena,  and  then  a  theory  of  soul-life 
which  serves  as  a  key  to  such  phenomena.  Ob- 
servations may  be  partial  and  the  theory  by 
which  thej^  are  judged  may  be  false  or  inadequate, 
but  the  process  itself — observation  and  hypothe- 
ses— is  the  only  one  on  which  the  true  science 
of  education  can  be  finally  founded  and  framed. 

It  is  obvious  that  there  are  many  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  a  sure  educational  philosophy. 
The  human  soul  is  to  most  men  terra  incognita. 
They  are  not  accustomed  to  observe  and  explore 
it.  We  are  familiar  with  matter.  We  keep  our 
thoughts  on  things  outside  of  ourselves.  Tan- 
gible and  visible  facts  are  obtrusive.  The  sun  is 
bright  and  the  earth  solid  ;  we  see  and  feel  both 


2  0  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

every  day.  Habits  of  self-introspection  and 
reflection  are  not  common.  We  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  inner  world  chiefly  through 
its  outward  forms  and  activities.  Just  here  we 
are  met  by  the  scientific  materialist  (a  few  sci- 
entific men  are  materialists),  who  plausibly  ex- 
plains the  mental  phenomena  on  the  theory  of 
materialism.  He  tells  you  that  mind  depends 
entirely  on  the  brain,  its  size,  weight,  and  the 
quality  of  its  tissue.  He  laughs  to  scorn  the 
idea  of  independent,  immaterial,  spiritual  exist- 
ence. Then  come  the  philosophers  who  do 
believe  in  an  immortal,  separate,  spiritual  per- 
sonality, but  who  differ  and  discuss  among 
themselves  as  to  the  genesis  and  relations  of 
mental  phenomena.  The  average  man  may  not 
be  perplexed  by  these  diversities  of  opinion,  but 
they  more  or  less  embarrass  the  search  after  the 
basal  principles  on  which  to  build  a  science  of 
mental  growth  and  improvement. 

The  complication  is  increased  by  one  impor- 
tant fact.  The  soul  being  a  free  personality  is 
subject  to  forces  which  belong  to  its  own  mys- 
terious realm  of  moral  being  and  which  are 
beyond  human  ken  and  control.     What  a  drop 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  21 

of  water  or  a  grain  of  saltpeter  will  do  under 
the  pressure  of  given  forces  or  in  special  condi- 
tions, the  scientist  can  foreknow  and  foretell. 
The  instincts  of  a  bird  may  be  counted  upon 
with  a  degree  of  certainty,  but  who  can  predict 
the  voluntary  and  personal  movements  of  a 
human  soul  ?  Here  science  finds  her  limitation 
and  can  only  speculate  concerning  the  most 
radical  and  important  actions  of  man. 

There  are,  however,  outside  of  this  unexplored 
and  mysterious  center  of  the  most  mysterious 
life  with  which  we  have  to  do,  certain  well- 
established  facts  and  laws  which  render  at  least 
a  tentative  science  of  education  possible.  There 
are  many  mental  and  moral  operations  which 
we  may  discover,  investigate,  and  under  certain 
circumstances,  to  some  extent  influence.  We 
may  reach  and  inform  and  inspire  a  human  soul. 

In  the  process  by  which  a  knowing  mind 
becomes  to  another  a  helping  mind,  we  find  the 
art  of  education.  The  science  begets  the  art. 
There  are  wise  ways  of  winning  attention  and  of 
awakening  a  soul  to  self-activity  in  observation, 
and  in  concentrated  and  continuous  effort. 
There  are   ways   of   holding   up    before    a   soul 


2  2  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

splendid  ideals  and  inciting  to  resolve  upon  their 
attainment,  and  to  put  resolve  into  patient  and 
untiring  pursuit.  These  wise  ways  are  the  ways 
of  teaching.     The  result  is  education. 

Manifold  are  the  methods  by  which  mind 
may  quicken  mind  to  think  and  to  act.  It  may 
be  done  by  incidental  statement,  and  as  in  a 
conversation.  Some  wise  men  can  teach  you  by 
making  you  talk  most  of  the  time,  they  dropping 
a  strong  seed-thought  only  now  and  then.  Mind 
may  be  inspired  by  formal  and  systematic  an- 
nouncement as  in  a  lecture  or  sermon  ;  or  the 
result  may  be  secured  by  instructional  direction 
as  in  the  methods  of  the  class-room.  But  the 
great  problem  is.  How  to  win  for  a  time,  that  we 
may  stimulate  and  guarantee  for  all  time,  inter- 
ested attention. 

To  a  restless,  rollicking  girl  in  an  astronomical 
observatory  the  professor  said,  "  Look  steadily — 
once."  She  had  tried,  two  or  three  times — tried 
in  her  way — to  look,  "  but  could  see  nothing  ! 
How  foolish  to  stick  your  head  into  that  !"  And 
then  she  turned  away  with  a  silly,  bantering 
laugh.  She  was  a  frivolous  girl  who  cared  no 
more  for  Saturn  or  Jupiter  than  about  the  Caro- 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  23 

line  Islands  imbroglio  or  the  United  States  sur- 
veys in  Northern  Alaska.  She  wanted  to  leave. 
*' Let's  go,"  she  said,  "and  do  something  lively. 
This  is  stupid." 

"  Come,  Hetty,"  said  the  professor,  "  try 
again.  Look  steadily — once."  Adjusting  her 
eye  to  the  glass  and  holding  still  long  enough  to 
"  look  steadily — once,"  she  suddenly  exclaimed, 
*•  O  how  lovely  !  How  wonderful  !  See  the 
rings  !  How  beautiful  !  Let  me  stay  !  "  After 
that  it  was  hard  work  to  get  her  away  from  the 
instrument  and  the  tower.  She  wanted  "  to  see 
more."  And  she  saw  more — another  planet,  a 
fragment  of  nebula  here,  then  there,  now  a  fixed 
star,  now  the  delicate  lines  of  the  new  moon. 
Space,  color,  splendor,  passed  before  her  aston- 
ished vision. 

"I'm  coming  again.  May  I,  professor?  I'm 
going  to  read  about  it  !     Isn't  it  all  wonderful  !" 

Not  a  frivolous  speech  fell  from  her  lips  on 
her  way  home  that  night.  Glancing  now  and 
then  toward  the  starry  vault,  she  often  exclaimed 
"Isn't  it  too  wonderful  for  anything  !"  She  had 
"looked  steadily — once." 

Many  of  our  young  people  are  flippant,  and 


24  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

to  our  more  mature  judgments  foolish,  because 
they  have  never  been  trained  to  "look  steadily — 
once  "  at  some  fact  or  field  in  science  or  literature. 
One  look  transforms  them.  They  suddenly  see 
a  new  world.  Old  delights  lose  their  charm  in 
the  presence  of  the  new  revelation. 

If  instead  of  scolding  such  students  for  their 
levity  we  were  to  bring  them  face  to  face  with 
som.e  mystery  in  nature  or  some  treasure  in 
literature,  or  best  of  all  some  blessed  reality  in 
religion,  and  bid  them  "look  steadily — once," 
we  should  demonstrate  again  the  law  of  "  the 
expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection." 

It  is  therefore  clear,  and  cannot  be  too  often 
reiterated,  that  in  order  to  the  best  results  in 
the  work  of  teaching,  the  action  of  teacher  and 
pupil  must  be  reciprocal.  The  full  mind  of  the 
one  must  be  met  by  the  ready  and  receptive 
mind  of  the  other.  Truth  to  be  effective  must 
be  taken  as  well  as  given.  Indeed,  it  can  scarcely 
be  considered  as  given  until  it  is  taken. 

Whatever  the  method  employed,  the  teacher 
must  observe  the  laws  of  accuracy,  careful  analy- 
sis, condensation,  simplicity,  and  illustration  ; 
guiding  his  pupils  in  the  acquisition  of  truth  on 


A  Shidy  in  Pedagogy.  25 

their  own  account,  and  inciting  them  to  continue 
their  researches  in  the  line,  but  beyond  the 
limits,  of  his  teaching,  and  always  aiming  to 
have  them  make  a  wise,  practical,  and  personal 
application  to  the  truth  apprehended.  A  writer 
has  well  said:  "The  more  you  can  render 
teachers  independent  of  any  set  method,  the 
more  you  can  emancipate  them  from  the  bondage 
of  form  and  bestow  upon  them  the  liberty  of 
the  Spirit,  the  better  work  they  will  do." 

He  who  most  prizes  the  science  of  teaching 
and  who  most  carefully  studies  the  subjects 
which  it  embraces,  will  be  likely  to  do  the  best 
work.  But  I  must  not  forget  that  there  are  men 
and  women  who  seem  to  possess  a  sort  of  edu- 
cating instinct.  They  have  tact  as  a  natural 
gift.  They  follow,  without  seeming  to  know 
that  they  are  doing  so,  all  the  best  suggestions 
of  the  profoundest  pedagogical  philosophy. 
They  are  not  empirics,  but  men  of  genius,  hap- 
pily adjusted  to  the  world  in  which  they  live, 
receiving  as  by  inheritance  what  other  men  win 
only  after  intense  study  and  protracted  experi- 
ence.      The   success  of  such  exceptions  should 


26  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

not  allow  us  to  depreciate  the  preparation  which 
is  to  the  vast  majority  of  teachers  indispensable. 

I  use  in  the  title  of  this  little  volume  a  term 
which,  although  not  euphonious,  and  the  pro- 
nunciation of  which  has  not  yet  been  agreed 
upon  by  English  speaking  educators,  is  very 
significant.  In  Greece  and  in  Rome,  it  was  em- 
ployed to  describe  the  slave  whose  business  it 
was  to  take  charge  of  the  child  at  home  and  to 
accompany  him  to  school.  He  was  of  the  child, 
the  leader.  This  child-leader  was  much  more 
than  an  ordinary  slave.  He  was  to  some  consid- 
erable degree  an  educated  man.  It  was  his 
business  to  train  the  boy  in  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge,  until  he  was  seven  years  of  age. 
He  taught  reading,  writing,  and  numbers.  After 
that  XSvi'S, paidagogos  for  ten  years  or  more  accom- 
panied his  pupil  to  the  school,  serving  as  his  pro- 
tector on  the  way  to  and  from  the  school  and 
probably  as  his  monitor  and  helper  there. 

The  word  "  pedagogue  "  has  not  always  been 
used  in  the  best  and  worthiest  sense  in  literature. 
It  is  not  hard  to  find  how  a  touch  of  contempt 
came  into  the  title.  The  habit  of  teaching  chil- 
dren is  likely  to  engender   certain  unfortunate 


A  Shidy  in  Pedagogy.  27 

habits.  The  pedagogue  was  accustomed  to  rule 
and  thus  became  dictatorial.  He  looked  con- 
stantly with  a  critical  eye  on  the  deportment, 
recitations,  and  casual  expressions  of  his  scholars. 
He  became  observant  and  hypercritical  every- 
where. He  was  an  authority  on  so  many  mat- 
ters. His  word  was  a  finality.  He  was  egotist- 
ical and  dogmatic.  Moving  in  a  little  round  of 
thought,  reiterating  his  professional  criticisms 
and  decisions  on  small  and  elementary  subjects, 
he  was  dwarfed  as  a  thinker  and  a  man.  Mean- 
while the  larger  world  of  real  life,  of  mature 
thought,  and  advanced  literature  remained  a 
sealed  book  to  him,  and  it  is  little  wonder  that 
he  became  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of  wide- 
awake, progressive,  and  busy  people,  because  of 
his  imperiousness,  egotism,  pedantry,  and 
diminutiveness. 

The  day  of  the  despised  pedagogue  is  over. 
The  office  of  teaching  is  ranked  among  the 
learned  professions.  Both  Wordsworth  and 
Agassiz  were  glad  to  be  known  as  "Teachers." 

Professional  teachers  are  not  the  only  teach- 
ers. Mothers  teach  their  children,  but  how  very 
soon  do  children  teach  their,  mothers.     The  si- 


28  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

lent  chamber  where  the  newborn  babe  lies,  cling- 
ing to  the  new-made  mother's  breast,  is  a  school- 
room for  her,  where  without  an  articulate  sound 
lessons  are  given  and  received,  which  a  wise 
mother  never  forgets.  What  an  illuminated  text- 
book is  baby's  face  through  all  the  earliest  years  ! 
How  the  lessons  in  it  lay  hold  of  intellect  and 
heart,  of  imagination  and  memory  !  A  great 
school  for  mother  is  the  nursery.  The  first  four 
years  of  her  baby's  life  have  more  power  in  them 
than  the  four  years  of  a  college  course  could 
have. 

The  diversity  of  mental  and  executive  endow- 
ment together  with  the  universal  law  of  inter- 
dependence guarantees  the  interchange  of  knowl- 
edge for  mutual  restraint  and  improvement. 
There  are  teachers  everywhere.  Whether  one 
will  or  not,  he  must  teach.  There  are  teachers 
at  home,  and  in  every  part  of  the  home.  Some- 
times the  most  powerful  teachers  are  servants  of 
the  lowest  order  in  kitchens  and  in  cellars.  They 
give  lessons  that  smolder  for  years,  and  that 
later  on  flash  out  in  fierce  and  lurid  flames. 
Wise  mothers  watch  their  servants  lest  the  child 
be  weakened  and  corrupted  as  to  his  moral  na- 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  29 


ture  by  those  whose  piirticular  business  it  is  to 
feed  and  build  up  the  physical. 

"Society,"  says  Emerson,  "is  a  Pestalozzian 
school ;  all  are  teachers  and  pupils  in  turn." 
Everybody  teaches.  Merchants,  mechanics, 
bankers,  farmers,  loungers  on  the  street — all 
teach.  The  work  of  education  goes  on  contin- 
ually in  field  and  shop  and  street  as  really  as  in 
nursery  and  kindergarten.  Mind  is  perpetually 
open  to  receive  impressions.  It  does  not  close 
its  gate-ways  to  the  outside  world  when  the  jan- 
itor locks  the  school-house  door  in  the  afternoon. 
While  the  light  flashes  through  the  atmosphere, 
while  the  optic  nerve  is  sensitive  enough  to  re- 
ceive images  from  the  all-surrounding  world, — 
lessons  are  being  given  and  received  ;  and  when 
the  books  are  closed  and  the  tired  teacher  has 
gone  home,  the  pupils  are  still  at  school  and  the 
teaching  work  is  continued. 

In  my  definition  of  education  I  assign  an  im- 
portant part  to  "  the  conditions  .  .  .  which  oper- 
ate in  the  development  of  personal  and  social 
character."  I  distinguish  between  "conditions" 
and  "special  agencies."  By  "special  agencies" 
I  mean  those  persons,  methods,  and  appliances 


30  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

employed  voluntarily  with  the  direct  object  of 
teaching,  such  as  the  professional  teacher,  the 
school,  and  the  book.  By  "  conditions  "  I  desig- 
nate those  circumstances  and  states  in  which  we 
live,  and  under  the  influence  of  which  we  come 
or  are  brought,  whether  voluntarily  or  not  on  our 
part,  or  on  the  part  of  others.  The  "  special 
agencies  "  may  be  used  or  they  may  be  neglected  ; 
but  the  "conditions,"  although  they  may  and 
should  be  watched,  "  selected,  applied,  and  reg- 
ulated," are  always  in  operation.  They  carry 
more  than  "a  bare  majority"  in  the  count  of 
forces  that  educate. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  mother  who  was  filled  with 
trouble  because  her  fourth  and  youngest  son 
announced  that  he  was  going  to  sea.  She 
had  already  given  up  three  boys  to  this  adven- 
turous life.  She  clung  to  the  fourth,  hoping  that 
he  would  be  spared  to  her  home  and  companion- 
ship. But,  alas,  he  went  the  way  of  the  others. 
She  tried  to  account  for  it.  She  had  always 
warned  her  boys  against  the  sea  and  the  sailor's 
life.  She  had  read  to  them  stories  of  storm  and 
shipwreck,  thinking  in  this  way  to  intimidate 
them.     But  in  boyhood  they  played  at  ship  life  ; 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  31 

they  drew  pictures  of  ships ;  they  made  and 
sailed  miniature  ships  ;  they  were  wild  to  see 
ships  ;  and  first  of  all  the  oldest  ran  away  that 
he  might  serve  before  the  mast,  and  then  the 
second  secured  reluctant  parental  consent  that 
he  might  not  go  clandestinely.  The  third  entered 
the  navy,  and  now  the  broken-hearted  mother 
found  the  fourth  bound  to  embark  on  a  mer- 
chant-ship. In  her  trouble  she  sent  for  her  min- 
ister and  laid  the  case  before  him.  *'  It  is  too  late 
now  to  prevent  it,"  she  said,  "  but  how  can  you 
account  for  this  singular  freak  of  the  whole  fam- 
ily of  boys  ?  It  is  not  an  inherited  taste.  It  is 
in  direct  opposition  to  all  my  teachings  and 
warnings."  The  minister  pointed  out  to  the  sad 
woman  a  large  and  remarkably  fine  picture  of  a 
ship  in  full  sail,  hanging  in  the  best  light  on  the 
wall  of  the  "living  room,"  in  which  they  were  at 
the  time  seated. 

"  How  long  have  you  had  that  picture  ?"  he 
asked. 

"For  twenty-five  years,"  she  replied.  "It 
was  the  gift  of  a  foreign  friend  and  is  considered 
an  unusually  good  painting.  We  prize  it  high- 
ly." 


32  A  Sttidy  in.  Pedagogy. 

The   minister   answered,  "  That  picture   has 

sent  your  sons  to  sea.  They  have  looked  at  it 
and  admired  it  from  childhood.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
superior  picture.  Watch  the  life  and  motion  in 
that  water.  See  the  pride  and  stateliness  with 
which  that  high  prow  faces  and  defies  the  break- 
ing wave.  Look  at  the  sails,  the  clouds,  the  blue 
sky  beyond  the  rifts,  the  movement,  the  power 
in  the  picture.  No  wonder  that  your  boys  were 
captured  by  it,  their  tastes  formed  and  their 
lives  controlled  by  that  rare  bit  of  art." 

I  cannot  vouch  for  the  literal  truth  of  this  story, 
but  I  can  answer  for  its  fidelity  to  human  nature. 
Pictures  educate.  Inartistic  pictures  that  violate. 
every  canon  of  taste,  every  law  of  color,  and 
every  line  of  truth,  corrupt  the  tastes  of  those 
who  look  at  them  from  day  to  day.  Weakness 
and  silliness  expressed  in  a  foolish  picture  tend 
to  produce  their  kind.  Thus  pictures  true  to 
finest  art  refine  ;  pictures  of  heroism,  a,nd  Yi,rtue 
ennoble  ;  and  thus  also  the  portraits  of  our 
ancestors  tend  to  increase  or  diminish  family 
and  personal  self-respect.  Thus  drapery,  furni- 
ture, carpets,  wood- work,  articles  of  vertii  and 
bric-a-brac,  have  a  tendency  to  refine  or  other- 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  33 

wise.  Sham  makes  children  familiar  with  sham. 
And  familiarity  with  sham  of  any  kind  weakens 
the  sense  of  truth.  There  is  power  in  this  par- 
ticular in  the  architecture  of  a  town.  Public 
halls,  church  interiors,  city  parks,  buildings  that 
are  of  costly  or  carved  stone  in  front  and  that  on 
the  hidden  sides  and  in  the  rear  are  of  brick  or 
uncut  stone, — these  all  give  unsyllabled  lessons 
concerning  truth  and  falsehood,  which  are 
weightier  than  sermons  about  morality  or  the. 
tasks  from  books  on  ethics  in  the  high  school.  I 
never  see  a  church  with  imposing  facade,  and 
with  "cheap"  side  and  rear  walls,  that  I  do  not 
as  a  Christian  have  a  sense  of  mortification. 

Again,  the  school-house  teaches  as  effectually 
as  the  school-teacher.  There  are  some  school- 
rooms where  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  most 
skillful  art-teacher  to  give  lessons  in  proportion, 
color,  and  tone,  or  for  a  sensible  school-mxistress 
to  talk  about  neatness,  cleanliness,  and  taste  in 
the  keeping  and  the  furnishing  of  a  house. 

Conditions  are  not  sufficiently  appreciated  by 
those  who  seem  most  earnest  in  the  advocacy  of 
popular  education.  Therefore,  this  emphasis  in 
dealing  with  the  people  whose  children  are  to  be 


34  -^  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

educated.  I  commend  to  you  the  school-teacher 
who  cares  for  atmospheres,  impressions,  and  tone, 
quite  as  much  as  for  text-books,  tasks,  and  accur- 
acy in  recitation.  I  ask  you  to  help  him  when 
he  tries  to  make  his  school-room  a  place  of  neat- 
ness and  brightness,  with  plants,  flowers,  pictures, 
statuettes,  window  and  wall  hangings,  and  what- 
ever beside  may  give  a  child  ideas  of  taste,  of 
purity,  of  restfulness,  and  which  will  fill  his  soul 
with  images  and  memories  to  go  with  him  to  the 
end  of  life,  a  source  of  inspiration  and  a  safe- 
guard against  evil. 

Dress  and  manners  have  teaching  power. 
Slovenly  habits  and  tawdry  garments  corrupt  the 
tastes  of  children.  Coarseness  begets  coarseness. 
Here  is  a  mother  who  has  a  high  keyed,  strong, 
and  ungoverned  voice.  She  employs  extrava- 
gant expressions,  prides  herself  in  the  use  of  slang 
and  takes  delight  in  defying  the  usages  of  good 
society.  What  wonder  that  her  daughter  grows 
up  to  the  same  indelicacy  and  uncouthness,  and 
to  aggravate  an  already  aggravated  evil,  glories 
in  what  is  really  her  shame.  Bishop  Huntington 
says,  "  A  beautiful  form  is  better  than  a  beauti- 


A  Study  in  JPedagogy.  35 

ful  face,  but  a  beautiful  behavior  is  better  than 
a  beautiful  form." 

None  but  true  ladies  and  gentlemen  should 
ever  be  employed  as  teachers.  Boards  of  in- 
struction should  require  of  all  candidates,  that 
they  be  polite,  neat,  gentle  as  well  as  accurate  in 
speech,  and  competent  to  teach  by  manners, 
tones  of  voice,  and  personal  character  as  really 
as  by  direct  class  instruction. 

The  streets  of  every  town  and  village  teach. 
The  town  council  may  not  have  this  fact  in  mind, 
but  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact.  Mother  does  not 
think  of  it.  She  kisses  her  young  daughter 
"good  morning"  as  the  innocent  and  frolicsome 
thing  starts  down  the  street.  The  school  is  a 
good  one.  The  teachers  are  of  the  best  that 
judgment  and  money  could  select  and  secure. 
Mother's  parting  embrace  implies  what  she  does 
not  express  in  so  many  words  :  "  Good-bye  for 
the  morning,  my  child  !  How  dear  you  are  to 
us  !  And  how  innocent  !  What  good  care  we 
take  of  you  in  the  selection  of  school  and 
teachers  !  How  sure  we  are  of  your  security 
and  of  good  teaching  for  the  next  three  hours  ! 
Good-bye,  my  darling  !" 


36  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

But  mother  has  not  thought  of  the  school  on 
the  way  to  school ;  of  the  lessons  on  the  way 
there  ;  of  the  lessons  on  the  way  back  ;  of  the 
lessons  at  recess.  What  lessons  !  And  what 
teachers  !  Of  all  these  father  and  mother  take 
no  account.  Education,  they  have  been  taught  to 
think  of  as  a  matter  of  teachers  and  of  tasks,  of 
books  and  of  hours.  They  have  not  given  much 
thought  to  the  teaching  power  of  the  school- 
house  itself  ;  nor  have  they  thought  at  all  of  the 
street-lessons.  Alas  for  the  girls  and  for  the 
boys,  because  of  the  street-school ! 

The  pictures  that  are  placed  in  the  show- 
windows  of  book-shops  and  art  rooms,  that  hang 
at  news-stands  and  on  v/alls  and  other  advertis- 
ing spaces  produce  impressions  that  are  as 
lessons  imparted  and  received.  They  are  mute 
indeed.  No  voice  is  heard  while  they  teach. 
But  they  speak  as  no  tones  or  articulations  of 
the  human  voice  can  speak.  They  hold  close 
attention.  They  rivet  eyes  and  thought.  They 
out-teach  the  best  professional  teachers.  They 
may  undo  in  five  minutes  some  other  teacher's 
work  of  an  hour  or  a  day.  They  hold  their 
pupils  still— .f^  still.     The  jolly,  skipping  girl  has 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  37 

been  arrested  by  them.  Watch  her  beautiful 
eyes,  and  that  fixed  gaze  !  Wonderfiil  girl — 
what  possibilities  are  in  thee !  What  power 
abides  in  the  picture  that  can  capture  thus,  this 
bit  of  incarnate  loveliness.  She  leaves  their 
presence,  perhaps  reluctantly,  but  carries  away 
with  her,  lines,  colors,  shadings,  attitudes  ;  and 
these  again  awaken  in  her  mind  older  or  indis- 
tinct impressions,  give  a  meaning  to  some  hints 
she  never  before  fully  understood  ;  move  upon 
her  feelings,  and  start  ideas  and  impulses  which 
most  effectually  sweep  away  all  the  best  words 
of  the  morning's  lesson  in  school.  Happy  for 
her,  if  the  kiss  of  welcome  on  her  return  at  noon, 
finds  as  clean  a  young  life  as  kissed  a  good-bye 
at  the  gate  three  hours  before. 

By  the  public  street  exhibition  of  pictures, 
low  standards  of  character  are  presented  to 
children,  already  dragged  far  enough  down  by 
the  ordinary  home  and  play-ground  life.  They 
are  drawn  to  the  picture.  They  look  and  think. 
They  look  again  and  go  away  to  remember  arid 
— to  think.  Here  are  pictures  which  present  the 
church  or  religion  in  some  unfair  or  ridiculous 
light.     They  commend  to  favor  senseless  hilarity, 


^S  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

profanity,  vulgarity,  or  disrespect  for  parents. 
They  represent  nude  or  semi-nude  women,  the 
favorites  of  the  theatre  or  the  marvels  of  the  cir- 
cus— standing  on  running  horses,  leaping  into 
the  air  from  bar  to  bar — hardening  every  girl 
who  looks  with  interest  on  them,  and  often  kin- 
dling in  boys  the  beginnings  of  a  passion,  which 
ends  in  foul  thoughts  and  often  in  deeds  of 
secret  and  of  deadly  sin. 

Dare  I  speak  of  the  lewd  and  bestial  pictures, 
the  coarse  rhymes,  the  inexpressibly  filthy  jokes 
which  are  drawn  or  written  by  brutes,  on  walls 
of  secluded  places  to  which  the  purest  children 
must  go,  and  where  are  sometimes  given  the 
first  lessons  in  a  whole  chapter  of  sin  ?  Dare  I 
speak  of  the  close  alliances  formed  by  young 
girls,  without  mother's  knowledge,  in  which 
innocence  is  inoculated  with  dangerous  informa- 
tion and  fires  are  kindled  which  burn  for  years 
and  leave  more  than  ashes  ? 

The  daily  papers  of  the  times  are  a  great 
educating  agency — for  good  and  for  evil.  Both 
results  come  even  to  those  who  themselves  never 
read  ;  for  the  periodical  press  produces  a  great 
body  of  oral  utterance  and  influence,  of  general 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  39 

information  overheard,  of  gossip  about  people 
and  things,  about  lawsuits  and  criminals,  which 
affects  even  those  who  never  read.  Father  may 
not  take  the  daily of  this  city  or  that,  be- 
cause he  does  not  want  his  sons  and  daughters 
to  read  the  vile  reports  of  some  great  criminal 
suit.  But  before  ten  o'clock  every  morning  his 
sons  and  daughters  have  had  all  the  worst  of  the 
story  from  those  who  heard  it  from  others.  The 
press  publishes,  and  far  away  from  the  reach  of 
paper  or  pamphlet  "a  little  bird  telleth  the 
whole  tale." 

Thus  do  shop-windows,  fences,  news-stands, 
school-houses,  young  companionships,  and  the 
oral  echoes  of  the  press  teach.  And  the  lessons 
are  free  and  fascinating.  They  constitute  "  con- 
ditions "  in  which  lies  a  power  educational,  a 
power  little  understood  by  parents  or  professional 
instructors. 

We  prolong  life  and  grow  by  the  food  we  eat 
at  stated  times  and  in  formal  and  conventional 
ways.  But  it  is  not  only  by  the  processes  of 
table-life  that  we  live  and  grow.  There  are 
beside  our  meals,  the  air  we  breathe  every 
moment,  sunlight,  sleep,  clothing,  and  the  artifi- 


4o  ^  Study  ih  Pedagogy. 

cial  heating  of  the  atmosphere  which  we  keep  up. 
After  the  same  manner  are  we  educated,  hot  by 
specific  acts  of  appointed  teachers,  but  by  every 
hour  we  live,  by  every  breath  we  draw,  by  every 
object  we  see,  by  every  word  we  hear,  and  by  the 
intellectual,  moral,  social,  yea,  even  the  physical 
atmosphere  which  surrounds  us.  It  is  a  serious 
problem  in  the  true  pedagogy  :  How  shall  we 
select,  apply,  and  regulate  the  educating  *'  con- 
ditions ?"  And  it  is  a  question  for  the  people 
rather  than  for  the  pedagogues  to  ahSwer. 

First  and  foremost  among  the  special  educa- 
tional agencies,  I  place  the  church.  And  by  the 
church,  I  mean  the  church  of  Jesus  the  Christ, 
which  in  simple  and  wise  forms  of  worship  and 
instruction,  works  by  the  Spirit  which  animated 
Him  ;  which  Spirit  He  imparts  to  the  individuals 
who  thus  possess  the  secret  of  His  own  character 
and  life.  I  speak  here  of  no  ecclesiastical  or 
dogmatic  standards  which  are  not  embodied  in 
the  person,  life,  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
which  are  not  found  on  the  surface  of  the  New 
Testament. 

The  "  assembly  "  of  His  followers  for  prayer, 
piraise,  preaching,  the  study  of  His  Word,  and 


A  -Study  in  Pedagogy.  41 

the  observance  on  occasion  of  the  two  isimple 
forms  of  commemorative,  symbolic  and  sacra- 
mental service  He  established,  is  the  essence  of 
the  outward  church.  Men  may  add  to  these,  but 
they  are  the  substance.  And  every  child  should 
be  brought  into  contact  with  this  substance  as  a 
necessary  part  of  his  education.  "  The  fear  of 
the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom."  There  is 
a  profound  philosophy  in  that  statement.  Dr. 
Charles  L.  Dana,  in  a  recent  discussion  of  the 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  society  would  be 
justified  in  disposing  of  "  certain  defective,  de- 
generate criminal  and  invalid  classes  "  by  the 
administration  of  carbonic  acid  baths,  concludes 
with  this  most  significant  sentence  :  ''  Life  is 
only  worth  saving  because  it  represents  some- 
thing more  than  mortality  ;  and  only  from  this 
higher  and  spiritual  standpoint  can  preventive 
and  curative  medicine  in  all  its  applications  be 
justified." 

True  education  is  founded  in  true  religious 
faith.  The  mystery  is  no  hindrance.  The  world 
is  full  of  perplexing  problems.  Children  begin 
life  asking  questions.  They  Wonder  at  the  won- 
ders about  them  :  and  wonder  more  that  no  one 


42  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

seems  able  to  remove  the  mystery  that  invests 
every  thing.  Wise  men  break  through  outer 
shells  to  find  new  and  harder  problems  within. 
The  deeper  down  and  the  farther  in  they  go,  the 
more  do  questions  multiply.  Nature  answers 
question  by  question.  The  earth,  the  air,  the 
sky,  the  soul,  the  past,  the  present,  the  future, 
are  covered  with  interrogation  points.  This  is  a 
world  crowded  with  mystery. 

We  see  facts  and  forms,  and  we  call  them  by 
certain  names.  We  know  them  by  their  names 
and  talk  familiarly  about  them,  as  when  we  speak 
of  "air,"  of  "  electricity,"  of  "  gravitation."  We 
ascertain  by  observation  and  experiment  certain 
ways  or  laws  that  these  things  have,  and  finding 
out  what  they  have  done  before,  or  what  has 
been  done  with  them,  we  are  able  to  lay  'our 
plans  for  their  use.  Depending  upon  the  stead- 
iness of  nature  we  project  theories,  and  we  work 
in  harmony  with  these  theories,  as  when  we  fly 
kites,  build  houses,  insulate  wires,  and  build  up 
batteries  of  great  power  for  sending  sounds  or 
other  signals  across  vast  distances.  But  beyond 
that  we  cannot  go.  We  name  and  use  these 
mysteries.      That   is   all.      When   a   child   asks, 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  43 

'*  What  are  air  and  electricity  and  gravitation  ?" 
the  wisest  man  must  say,  "  I  do  not  know." 
When  the  child  asks,  "  How  did  they  begin  ?"  the 
philosopher  must  answer,  "  I  do  not  know,"  He 
does  not  know.  He  may  trace  heat  and  light 
and  electricity  back  to  motion — but  the  problem 
of  motion  is  as  hard  as  any  he  had  before  en- 
countered.    Mystery — everywhere  ! 

Both  child  and  philosopher,  however,  make 
use  of  the  forces  they  cannot  comprehend.  The 
boy  cannot,  to  save  his  life,  tell  of  the  wind, 
whence  it  cometh,  or  whither  it  goeth,  or  what  it 
is,  and  yet  he  gives  his  kite  into  its  keeping,  and 
lets  out  cord  at  the  bidding  of  its  pressure.  He 
gets  fun  and  exercise  out  of  the  mysterious  force, 
and  does  not  mope  and  scold  because  he  cannot 
understand  its  source  or  nature  or  the  final  cause 
of  its  various  phenomena.  In  the  same  way  tele- 
graph companies  invest  millions  of  money, 
stretch  wires,  sink  cables,  and  build  offices,  hav- 
ing perfect  faith  in  a  force  about  which  they 
know  but  little.  Men  send  messages  day  and 
night,  over  the  land,  under  the  sea,  reckless  as 
to  cost,  through  men  who  handle  the  machinery 
which  controls  an  energy  which  the  machinery 


44  ^  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

itself  could  explain  about  as  A^ell  as  the  men  who 
manipulate  it.  The  impenetrable  mystery  in- 
vesting a  power  does  not  prevent  sensible  men 
from  using  it  if  thereby  they  may  get  gain  or  do 
good.  And  this  is  highest  wisdom.  The  work 
to  be  done  is  necessary  to  the  order  and  pros- 
perity of  society.  The  knowledge  of  the  philos- 
ophy is  not  necessary.  A  message  will  go  as 
certainly  and  as  rapidly  where  electrical  condi- 
tions are  observed  as  if  the  operator  could  explain 
the  prime  cause  and  hidden  secrets  of  the  elec- 
trical agent.  And  what  is  true  of  the  world  of 
nature  is  true  of  the  world  of  grace — that  other 
realm  of  being,  of  observation,  of  experience, 
and  of  practical  adaptations.  We  live  in  the 
body,  sustaining  certain  relations  to  the  visible 
world  and  performing  certain  acts  which  these 
relations  require  and  make  possible.  The  prob- 
lenis  do.  not  deter  us.  The  absolute  uncertainty 
as  to  the  causes  and  relations  of  things  does  not 
hinder  us.  So  do  we  live  in  the  spirit,  sustaining 
certain  relations  to  the  invisible  world,  and  we 
should  in  a  wise  way  perform  the  acts  which 
these  relations  Require  and  make  possible,  the 
problem  and  the.  uncertainties  not  deterring  or 


A  Study,  in  Pedagogy.  45 

hindering  us.      This  is  common  sense  in  matters 
of  religion. 

Let  us,  therefore,  as  educators,  heed  these 
practical  counsels  and  teach  them  to  our  pupils  : 
Acknowledge  the  first  great  Cause  who  created 
all  things,  even  if  we  cannot  find  him.  Reverence 
the  great  Providence  who  governs  all  things,  even 
though  he  hides  himself  from  our  bodily  vision. 
Trust  and  love  the  great  Father  of  all  men,  even 
though  we  do  not  see  his  outstretched  arms  of  in- 
vitation and  welcome.  Imitate  the  Spirit  and  life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  even  though  we  are  perplexed  to 
understand  how  he  came  to  be  born  and  how  he 
wrought  his  great  miracles  or  how  he  rose  from 
the  dead.  Accept  the  inward  impulses  and  lead- 
ings of  the  I^oly  Spirit  as  we  study  the  Wprd  of 
God^  even  though  it  be  beyond  our  power  to 
explain  the  existence  of  such  invisible  influence, 
or  tell  how  the  Scriptures  were  inspired.  Pray 
with  true  desire  for  the  real  blessings  of  the 
spiritual  world,  although  we  be  as  ignorant  of 
the  processes  of  prayer  as  we  are  of  telegraphy. 
Fiad  the  conditions,  conform  to  them,  and  secure 
the  results,  even  if  all  the  causes  be  hidden  in 
hopeless    uncertainty.      Let    us    have    common 


46  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

sense  in  matters  of  religion  and  spiritual  life. 
And  if  we  do  not  teach  theology  to  our  pupils, 
leaving  that  work  to  their  parents  and  pastors, 
let  our  teaching  in  other  lines  always  recognize 
the  reality  of  the  religious  faculty  in  man,  and 
the  importance  of  its  cultivation. 

Again,  it  is  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  which 
exalts  the  doctrine  of  intrinsic  soul  value.  And 
this  recognition  is  at  the  basis  of  all  educational 
work.  Mathew  Arnold  says  truly  that  "conduct 
is  the  end  of  life,  and  a  man  who  works  for 
conduct,  therefore,  works  for  more  than  a  man 
who  works  for  intelligence."  It  is  the  church  of 
Jesus  Christ  which  exalts  the  doctrine  of  conduct, 
and  of  the  true  character  which  produces  it. 
Tyndall  says,  that  in  response  to  the  question 
as  to  how  the  Germans  behaved  in  going  into 
battle,  a  Prussian  officer  replied  "  They  exclaim, 
'  Wir  iniissen  unsere  Pflicht  thun  '  "  (We  must  do 
our  duty).  It  is  the  church  of  Christ  which 
exalts  this  essential  element  in  conduct — absolute 
surrender  to  duty.  It  is  the  mission  of  the 
church  to  teach  the  spiritual  value  of  man,  the 
supreme  value  of  conduct,  and  the  root  of  con- 
duct— a  character  which  is  loyal  to  duty. 


A  Study  m  Pedagogy.  47 

This  spiritual  and  ethical  teaching  lies  at  the 
basis  of  all  true  education.  Every  individual 
soul  needs  the  church  in  this  simple  and  divine 
sense.  In  her  human  and  hierarchical  forms,  in 
which  sacraments  and  ceremonies  are  unduly  and 
unwisely  and  absurdly  emphasized,  and  made 
to  mean  what  the  Founder  of  the  church  never 
intended,  there  are  so  many  puerilities  and  t3'ran- 
nies  that  we  do  not  wonder  at  the  repugnance 
and  protests  of  men  of  common  sense.  It  is  not 
of  this  church  in  caricature  and  corruption  that 
I  speak  ;  but  of  the  pure  church  with  the  Bible 
as  its  only  authority,  the  Christ  as  its  only  Head, 
the  believers — lay  and  clerical,  who  have  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  as  constituting  its  only  priest- 
hood, the  building  of  genuine  character  for  time 
and  for  eternity  as  its  only  mission.  This  church 
is  the  mightiest  educational  factor  in  the  world. 
It  recognizes  man's  real  value  and  dignity.  It 
rightly  adjusts  the  multiplied  activities  and 
powers  of  the  soul.  It  applies  the  true  test  for 
determining  the  relative  values  of  all  other  edu- 
cating agencies. 

Children  should  be  brought  under  the  public 
and  pastoral  care  of  the  church  in  the  sanctuary, 


48  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

the  Sunday-school,  and  at  the  fireside.  They 
should  be  required  by  parental  authority  to 
attend  its  solemn  services,  sing  its  songs,  hear  its 
ministers,  study  its  one  divine  text-book,  and 
enlist  in  its  mission  of  divine  worship  and 
human  help.  They  should  go  by  compulsion 
until  they  go  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  then 
until  they  find  it  a  delight. 

What  a  great  teacher  a  pastor  may  be  !  He 
has  the  world  of  observation,  history,  and  science 
to  draw  from  in  illustration  of  the  world  of  grace. 
He  may  teach  while  he  preaches.  He  may  know 
and  watch  the  day  school  which  the  children  of 
his  church  attend.  He  may  neutralize  the  apathy 
or  the  proper  silence  of  secular  teachers  as  to 
religicus  teaching,  by  his  Sabbath-day  instruc- 
tions. He  may  teach  in  and  through  his  Sunday- 
school  by  means  of  superintendent,  teachers, 
chorister,  librarians,  and  platform  speakers.  He 
may  make  his  church  an  institute  of  theology,  of 
church  history,  biblical  exposition,  and  Christian 
ethics  for  young  and  old.  He  may  organize 
bible  classes  for  all  grades  of  his  adult  members 
and  supplement  the  most  direct  and  vigorous 
religious    teaching    by    evening    classes,  in    all 


A  Sttidy  in  Pedagogy.  49 

branches  of  learning,  for  those  who  want  educa- 
tion but  who  cannot  go  to  the  schools  to  get  it. 
He  may  organize  popular  lecture  courses  in  his 
own  church  in  science  and  in  art,  in  history  and 
political  economy ;  debating  societies  ;  circles 
for  home  reading ;  magazine  clubs  ;  recreative 
evening  classes  ;  and  any  number  of  useful 
devices  which  would  tend  to  make  his  church  a 
school. 

I  am  not  especially  anxious  about  religion  in 
the  day  schools,  that  is  in  the  way  of  formal  teach- 
ing, if  we  can  have  good  ethical  and  religious 
teaching  through  the  church  and  the  family. 
When  Roman  priests  talk  about  the  "godless 
schools  "  of  America  we  well  understand  their 
meaning.  We  well  know  what  they  seek  when  in 
lachrymose  tones  they  plead  for  the  privilege  of 
educating  their  "  own  children  "  in  their  "  own 
way."  We  know  what  their  "  own  way  "  is.  Have 
they  not  had  free  opportunity  for  a  thousand  years 
in  Italy  to  show  what  their  own  way  is  ?  Is  there 
a  more  ignorant,  debased,  idolatrous,  and  crim- 
inal population  on  the  planet  than  the  lower 
classes  of  Italy  brought  up  under  Romish  con- 
trol ?     What  specimen  has  the  Romish  church  to 


50  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 


offer  in  the  line  of  popular  education  ?  Are  they 
to  be  found  in  south  Ireland?  In  Portugal? 
French  Canada?  Spain?  Mexico?  South 
America  ?  Away  with  these  sophistical  assaults 
upon  the  public  school  system  of  our  great 
republic  ! 

In  our  day  we  are  in  danger  of  yielding  to  a 
prevailing  good-nature  which  is  hurt  at  the 
thought  of  saying  anything  against  anybody. 
It  is  the  weak  mercy  of  the  traditional  grand- 
mother who  is  too  kind  to  be  just.  It  grows  up 
with  and  increases  indifference,  both  to  truth 
and  righteousness.  It  says,  "  O,  well,  never 
mind  ;  people  will  differ,  and  people  will  do  this 
or  that — never  mind.  It  really  makes  no  differ- 
ence what  people  believe."  This  is  both  a  weak 
and  a  wicked  way  of  looking  at  life. 

It  does  make  a  difference  what  people  think 
and  do.  There  is  truth  and  there  is  error,  and 
it  makes  a  difference  which  you  hold  and  pro- 
mote. There  is  right  and  there  is  wrong,  and  it 
makes  a  great  difference  which  you  practice. 
BetVv'een  narrow  and  bitter  personal  antagonism, 
because  of  a  difference  of  opinion,  and  the  mod- 
ern  "  happy-go-lucky  "  carelessness  about   doc- 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  51 

trine,  there  is  a  wise  and  golden  mean,  where,  in 
loyalty  to  truth  and  charity  toward  all,  all  wise 
men  stand. 

For  every  conceivable  reason  we  should  feel 
justified  in  doing  all  that  we  can  against  the 
insidious  policies  of  that  ancient  and  dangerous 
institution,  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  has  in  it, 
perhaps,  as  a  system,  less  good  and  more  evil, 
less  truth  and  more  error,  than  any  other  thing 
that  bears  the  name  of  Christian.  I  say  nothing 
against  the  humble  people  who  have  been  vic- 
timized by  the  wily  scheme.  I  suppose  there  are 
devout  priests,  as  there  may  be  deluded  and 
honest  bishops,  in  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  we 
must  not  be  deceived  by  a  false  charity  until  we 
find,  too  late,  that  the  organization  we  have 
fostered  has  won  what  it  aims  at,  namely,  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  republic. 

Withered  be  the  hand  that  would  interfere 
with  the  rights  of  a  Romanist  to  worship  whom 
he  will,  when  he  will,  where  he  will,  as  he  will  ; 
,but  let  us  keep  our  eyes  fixed  on  the  history  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  the  record  she  has  made, 
the  curse  she  has  been  to  every  nation  on  earth 
in  which  she  has  had   supreme  power,  and  the 


52  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 


blight  which  slie  has  brouglit  upon  the  common 
people  everywhere. 

All  honor  to  independent  men  who  are  more 
American  than  Romanist,  and  who,  knowing 
better  than  we  can  know  the  danger  from  "  the 
Church,"  are  willing  to  defy  the  priest  and  sup- 
port the  Nation.  These  men  have  no  fault  to 
find  with  the  fidelity  of  wise  patriots  who  know 
the  peril  of  the  plot  and  who  have  no  smooth 
words  with  which  to  conciliate  the  plotters. 

The  Roman  Catholic  church  is  afraid  to  have 
her  children  taught  standard  and  trustworthy 
history.  Hence  her  effort  to  keep  them  away 
from  the  public  schools  and  her  hypocritical 
objections  as  to  the  religious  or  non-religious 
public  school  system  of  America. 

If  the  church  and  the  family  are  faithful,  the 
school  may  be  silent  on  religious  subjects  and 
yet  will  every  child  be  religiously  educated. 
The  closing  of  the  day  school  on  Saturday  and 
Sabbath  is  a  monumental  tribute  to  religion. 
The  act  calls  attention  to  Saturday  as  a  "  holi- 
day "  and  Sabbath  as  a  "  holy-day."  The  silence 
of  the  public  school  and  the  closing  of  its  doors 
on  Sabbath  is  an  imposing  and  eloquent  reference 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  53 


of  the  whole  question  to  the  church  and  to  the 

home.  The  day  school,  even  without  a  word  of 
direct  religious  instruction,  becomes  a  testing 
place  of  the  work  done  at  home  and  in  the 
church. 

We  need  ot  be  afraid  to  excuse  the  day 
school  teacher  from  the  use  of  the  catechism  or 
Bible,  if  we  do  our  work  well  elsewhere.  Re- 
ligious power  will  tell  in  railway  car,  shop,  and 
market  without  a  formal  religious  service.  If 
the  teacher  lack  religious  faith,  the  formal  teach- 
ing of  Christianity  will  avail  little.  If  he  be  filled 
with  it,  its  power  will  be  felt  in  a  score  of  ways. 
Of  course,  where  practicable,  let  us  have  relig- 
ious services  in  the  day  school.  But  where  it  is 
deemed  best  to  omit  them,  do  not  let  us  lose 
heart.  And,  above  all,  we  must  not  allow  the 
Romanists  through  weak  sophistries  and  bold 
misrepresentations  to  divide  the  public  school 
funds,  and  thus  destroy  our  system  of  education 
and  our  republican  institutions. 

In  connection  with  the  church,  and  under 
certain  conditions  organically  a  part  of  it,  is  the 
home.  Erasmus  pleaded  for  more  private 
schools.      That    is    what    the    home    should    be. 


54  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

Home  is  a  school  full  of  object  lessons,  setting 
forth  in  simple,  comprehensible  ways  the  wider 
world  and  the  larger  life.  It  should  train  chil- 
dren to  self-respect,  the  habit  of  self-support,  dig- 
nified views  of  life,  and  steadiness  of  purpose 
Home  should  constitute  itself  a  right-hand  helper 
of  the  public  school.  It  should  insist  upon  reg- 
ularity and  punctuality  of  attendance,  carefulness 
of  preparation  at  home,  and  frequent  reviews  of 
lessons  taught. 

Mother  and  father  should  follow  the  chil- 
dren into  the  field  of  literature  and  science  where 
as  students  they  wander,  looking  into  their  text- 
books, giving  additional  aid  by  conversation, 
questioning  and  readings.  Mother  especially 
should  try  to  become  acquainted  with  the  general 
principles  and  method  of  teaching.  She  should 
know  and  observe  a  few  of  the  simplest  laws  of 
teaching.     For  example  : 

First.  The  law  of  desire,  which  is  so  effective 
in  binding  a  child  to  his  books  and  his  teachers. 
Curiosity  may  be  excited.  A  sense  of  need  may 
be  awakened.  Ambition  also  ministers  to  it.  As 
Professor  Cook  of  Harvard  College  says,  "  Every 
American  boy  cannot  be  President  of  the  United 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  55 

States,  but  if,  as  our  English  cousins  assert,  he 
believes  that  he  can,  the  very  belief  makes  him 
an  abler  man."  Parents  can  do  so  much  toward 
developing  this  craving  of  the  conditions  which 
create  knowledge. 

Second.  The  law  of  resolve.  The  training  of 
a  very  little  child  to  the  frequent  exercise  of 
will-power  has  more  to  do  than  most  people  sup- 
pose with  success  in  study  later  on  in  the  years 
of  a  boy's  school  life. 

Third.  The  law  of  definiteness  and  accuracy. 
And  here  home  may  do  much  nobler  work  by 
promoting  every  day  observation  of  facts  and  by 
testing  the  child's  knowledge  to  make  sure  that 
he  really  knows  what  he  thinks  that  he  knows. 
Professor  Cook,  whom  I  may  quote  once  more, 
says  that  "  success  in  the  observation  of  phenom- 
ena implies  three  qualities  at  least,  viz.  :  quick- 
ness and  sharpness  of  perception,  accuracy  in 
details,  and  truthfulness."  Home  has  opportu- 
nity to  accomplish  more  in  these  lines  than  the 
school  itself. 

Fourth.  The  law  of  moral  conviction.  It  is  a 
great  thing  to  feel  that  truth  is  worth  having  for 
its   own  sake  ;  that  knowledge   gained   but   not 


56  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

prized  as  truth  is  of  little  benefit ;  that  we  should 
study  for  moral  as  much  as  for  intellectual  ends. 
It  is  here  that  mother's  influence  can  most  effect- 
ually be  exerted,  and  many  a  man  who  has  come 
to  prize  truth  for  truth's  sake,  owes  this  grace, 
which  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated,  to  his 
own  mother's  words  and  life. 

Fifth.  The  law  of  philanthrophic  intent.  We 
should  know  that  we  may  help.  Education  may 
develop  a  species  of  pride  and  of  self-righteous- 
ness. It  may  promote  a  spirit  of  caste  and  of 
exclusiveness.  I  have  been  pained  to  find  among 
scholars  of  a  certain  class,  an  unwillingness  to 
allow  to  the  mass  of  the  people  larger  education- 
al privileges.  "It  is  not  well  to  educate  them 
above  their  business."  "  They  cannot  appreciate 
these  things."  "They  will  be  less  willing  to 
serve,  and  less  easy  to  be  controlled."  These  are 
the  reasons  assigned  by  a  few  social  and  intellec- 
tual aristocrats  of  the  day,  for  limiting  the  oppor- 
tunities of  "the  people,"  or  for  refusing  to  lend 
liberal  aid  in  multiplying  such  opportunities. 
All  such  views  are  as  unchristian  as  they  are 
unrepublican.  Every  man  has  a  right  to  be 
all  that  he  has  power  to  be,  and  every  other  man 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  57 

is  in  duty  bound  to  help,  or  at  least  not  to  hinder 

him  in  his  effort.  Our  children  should  be  edu- 
cated to  sympathize  with  all  men  and  to  help  all 
men.  An  education  that  lacks  this  spirit  is  one- 
sided and  deficient. 

Into  every  cultivated  home  may  be  brought 
occasionally  or  regularly  children  of  the  public 
school  who  lack  home  help  in  their  day  school 
studies  and  who  could  be  thus  prepared  for  their 
recitation.  Every  teacher  appreciates  the  advan- 
tage which  those  pupils  whose  parents  are  inter- 
ested in  their  school  life,  and  who  give  them 
testing  and  training  to  supplement  the  profes- 
sional teacher's  work.  What  if  the  children  of 
poor  and  illiterate  homes  could  have  this  very 
same  help  ?  What  if  the  church  should  do  the 
same  work  though  voluntary  teachers,  going 
from  house  to  house,  or  in  a  room  of  the  church 
set  apart  for  such  gracious  and  holy  purpose  ? 

Sixth.  lYx&l^.sN oi expression.  Children  should 
be  taught  to  tell  what  they  know.  They  should 
be  trained  from  the  beginning  in  the  art  of  re- 
producing— of  telling,  by  tongue,  by  crayon, 
by  pen,  by  action — the  things  they  have  observed 
and    acquired  ;    and    this    not    in    the    ordinary 


58  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 


routine  of  examination.  "Examination,"  says 
Mr.  Huxley,  "  is  an  art,  and  a  difficult  one,  which 
has  to  be  learned  like  all  other  arts."  Concern- 
ing its  abuse  in  our  system  of  education,  he  says 
that  scholars  "work  to  pass,  and  not  to  know  ; 
and  outraged  science  takes  revenge.  They  do 
pass,  and  they  don't  know."  Whatever  the 
formal  teacher  may  do  in  the  school-room,  parents 
at  home  may  promote  natural  expression  on  the 
part  of  their  children,  by  conversation,  by  letter 
writing,  by  drawing  and  painting,  by  recreative 
devices  of  various  kinds.  They  may  order  the 
free  conversation  of  the  table  and  the  fireside 
with  educational  intent.  Collections  of  speci- 
mens in  natural  science,  classifications  of  pictures, 
compositions  on  the  common  articles  of  daily 
use, — where  they  come  from,  how  they  are 
brought  to  us,  or  how  they  are  made  for  us,  what 
they  cost,  and  who  are  the  people  whose  services 
combine  to  place  them  within  our  reach — these 
and  like  methods  would  enable  a  family  to 
accumulate  useful  knowledge,  to  take  delight 
in  observation  and  reading.  A  distinguished 
teacher  of  chemistry  once  said,  "  To  arouse  a 
love  of  study  in  any  subject  (I  care  not  how  sub- 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  59 

ordinate  its  importance,  or  how  limited  its  scope) 
is  to  take  the  first  step  toward  making  a  man  a 
scholar." 

The  professional  teacher  need  not  be  alarmed 
at  this  plea  for  the  development  of  the  teaching 
work  of  the  home.  Parents  will  never  do  that 
work  so  well  as  to  be  able  to  excuse  the  school- 
master. They  may  require  better  work  at  his 
hands,  and  be  better  able  to  judge  of  it  and  of 
him.  The  success  of  the  physician  depends  on 
the  co-operation  of  nurse,  housekeeper,  cook  and 
children.  The  more  they  know  and  the  more 
they  can  do,  the  more  successfully  will  he  be  able 
to  treat  his  patients.  So  will  intelligent  homes 
help  intelligent  teachers,  and  exalting  the  pro- 
fession render  its  services  indispensable  to  the 
well-being  of  society. 

This  brings  me  to  another  special  agency — 
the  school.  Of  it  I  may  not  speak  at  any  great 
length.  It  must  supplement  the  best  work  of 
the  best  parents,  and  be  a  substitute  where  pa- 
rental effort  is  lacking  or  defective. 

Its  tasks  must  not  be  so  easy  as  to  require 
neither  resolve  nor  effort,  nor  so  difficult  as  to 


6o  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

paralyze  with  discouragement ;  nor  so  general 
as  to  render  concentration  impracticable. 

It  should  teach  the  rudiments  of  knowledge 
so  well  and  make  them  so  familiar  that  they  need 
never  be  formally  reviewed  in  the  later  years. 

It  should  cause  children  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  mechanical  processes  of  reading,  wri- 
ting, ciphering,  and  those  more  important  pro- 
cesses by  which  they  acquire  power  to  think,  to 
reason,  to  accumulate,  and  to  use  information. 

It  should  ensure  during  the  early  years  a 
broad  view  of  the  universe  of  truth,  and  cultivate 
in  children  a  taste  for  knowledge  which  shall 
grow  to  be  a  hungering  and  a  thirsting  after  it. 

It  should  establish  habits  of  daily  observation, 
the  power  of  intellectual  concentration,  and  the 
wisest  use  of  language  in  the  expression  of  one's 
ideas,  desires  and  determinations.  A  great  work 
is  that  of  the  school,  and  thrice  blessed  is  the 
pupil  whose  teachers  duly  appreciate  the  power 
of  their  office. 

Of  another  special  agency  I  must  speak  briefly. 
The  press  is  one  of  the  mightiest  forces  for  good 
and  for  evil  in  this  world.  It  contributes  to 
every  cause — good  or  evil.     It  furnishes  arms  for 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  6i 

friend  and  foe  alike.  The  church,  the  home, 
and  the  school  must  learn  to  appreciate  and 
to  employ  the  press.  Carlyle  says,  "  All  that  a 
university  or  final  highest  school  can  do  for  us, 
is  still  but  what  the  first  school  began  doing — 
teach  us  to  read."  We  are  educated  that  we 
may  be  able  to  read  ;  that  we  may  know  what 
not  to  read  ;  what  to  read  in  haste  and  in  frag- 
ments, and  what  to  wade  through  with  slow, 
deep,  cautious,  critical  thought  ;  what  to  mark 
for  reading,  and  what  to  reproduce  as  seed  in 
soil  for  one's  own  harvesting. 

Parents  cannot  keep  their  children  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world,  but 
they  can  repudiate  a  daily  paper  that  is  filled 
with  prurient  reports  of  crime.  They  can  and 
they  should  make  such  bold  appeal  and  protest 
against  filth  and  corruption,  that  editors  will 
come  to  know  that  there  is  an  element  in  society, 
the  moral  sentiment  and  courage  of  which  they 
cannot  afford  to  ignore. 

Bring  books  into  the  homes,  the  churches,  and 
the  schools — good  books,  wise  books,  immortal 
books,  remembering  their  value  as  the  "  life- 
blood  "  of  great  spirits,  and  considering  well  the 


62  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

words  of  Ruskin  :  "We  may  by  good  fortune 
obtain  a  glimpse  of  a  great  poet  and  hear  the 
sound  of  his  voice  ;  or  put  a  question  to  a  man 
of  science,  and  be  answered  good-humoredly. 
We  may  intrude  ten  minutes'  talk  on  a  cabinet 
minister,  or  snatch,  once  or  twice  in  our  lives, 
the  privilege  of  throwing  a  bouquet  on  the  path 
of  a  princess,  or  arresting  the  kind  glance  of  a 
queen.  And  meantime  there  is  a  society  con- 
tinually open  to  us,  of  people  who  will  talk  to  us 
as  long  as  we  like  ;  talk  to  us  in  the  best  words 
they  can  choose  ;  and  this  society,  because  it  is 
so  numerous  and  so  gentle,  and  can  be  kept 
waiting  round  us  all  day  long,  not  to  grant 
audience,  but  to  gain  it,  kings  and  statesmen 
lingering  patiently  in  these  plainly  furnished  and 
narrow  ante-rooms,  our  book-case  shelves,  we 
make  no  account  of  that  company,  perhaps  never 
listen  to  a  word  they  would  say  all  day  long." 

The  man  who  is  ill  sends  for  a  physician,  and 
then  under  his  physician's  direction,  takes  certain 
medicine  and  adopts  a  prescribed  diet.  This  is 
not  all.  He  has  his  window  opened  from  time 
to  time  to  let  in  the  light  and  the  fresh  air.  If 
possible  he  takes  a  journey  for  change  of  air  and 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  63 


of  scenery.  He  regulates  the  permanent  condi- 
tions and  depends  as  much  upon  them  as  upon 
food  and  physic.  He  is  wise  thus  to  control  the 
special,  or  direct,  agencies  and  the  equally 
important  but  incidental  conditions.  This  two- 
fold work  is  equally  necessary  in  the  science  and 
art  of  pedagogy. 

I  have  thus  far  in  these  pages  tried  to  define 
the  nature,  end  and  process  of  education  ;  to 
indicate  the  educating  conditions  of  our  modern 
civilization  ;  to  define  the  four  leading  educating 
agencies, — the  church,  the  hcjme,  the  school  and 
the  press  ;  and  now  I  hope  to  show  how  both  the 
"  conditions  "  and  "  agencies  "  may  be  selected, 
applied  and  regulated  It  was  difficult  to  intro- 
duce these  teaching  factors  without  anticipating 
to  some  degree  the  more  specific  and  practical 
counsels  which  properly  belong  to  this  branch  of 
the  treatment  ;  and  I  need  not  apologize  for  the 
didactic  form  which  the  final  pages  of  necessity 
assume. 

If  one  live  for  "  conduct,"  which  according 
to  Matthew  Arnold,  and  according  to  Solomon 
also  for  that  matter,  "is  the  end  of  life,"  and  for 
"  character,"  which  is  the  only  root  that  can  vield 


64  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

conduct  worth  producing,  then  everj^thing  of  an 
external  sort  in  life  should  be  subordinated  to 
this  attainment  and  deportment.  Wealth 
achieved  by  crime,  or  at  the  expense  of  "high 
thinking  "  and  true  living,  is  so  much  a  loss  and 
so  much  a  curse  to  him  who  wins  it,  and  to  his 
children  as  well.  Better,  far  better  to  be  poor 
in  property  and  rich  in  mental  gain  and  spiritual 
character  ;  for  this  is  the  only  enduring  posses- 
sion. Assuming  that  these  high  educational 
aims  have  been  adopted  by  my  readers,  I  will 
turn  Mentor  and  try  to  tell  how  parents  may 
become  teachers  ;  and  how  the  church  and  the 
home  may  be  great  schools  of  training,  preparing 
the  way  for  the  other  schools  and  supplementing 
their  more  formal  and  elaborate  methods. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  choose  a  home  with  as 
much  care  as  one  chooses  a  school.  Indeed  the 
former  is  the  more  important  choice.  It  is  a 
great  matter  of  surprise  that  so  many  people  pre- 
fer the  city  to  the  country,  or  the  great  metropo- 
lis to  a  rural  town.  There  are  thousands  of 
families  crowded  into  the  most  limited  and 
unwholesome  quarters  in  great  cities,  who  could 
live  less  expensively  and  far  more  comfortably 


A  Study  171  Pedagogy.  65 

in  a  suburban  neighborhood,  where  their  chil- 
dren could  have  plenty  of  fresh  air  to  breathe, 
and  ample  ground  for  frolic  and  for  useful  exer- 
cise. Even  the  residents  on  the  great  avenues 
are  a  wonder  to  me  for  the  same  reason. 
Whether  in  the  city  or  the  country,  one  should 
select  a  home  for  his  children  with  an  eye  to 
their  permanent  good,  rather  than  to  present 
pleasure  or  future  financial  gain.  Once  in  a 
while  I  meet  a  man  whose  residence  is  deter- 
mined by  this  educational  idea.  "  It  will  be 
better  for  my  children  to  live  here,"  he  says. 
He  is  determined  to  control  the  atmosphere. 

"Alas,  alas,"  moans  one  poor  soul,  a  mother, 
"  I  cannot  go  where  I  would,  and  here  in  this 
squalid  and  confined  neighborhood  I  must  bring 
up  my  children.  What  good  will  your  law  of 
atmosphere  do  me  and  mine  ?'" 

Good  woman,  I  have  seen  a.  lily  grow  in  the 
mire.  You  may  not  go  to  the  best  and  freshest, 
but  much  of  the  best  and  freshest  you  may  bring 
to  you  and  yours.  The  broom  is  a  magic  wand. 
It  makes  little  folks  fairies  to  wield  it.  Soap  is 
so  cheap,  and  water  does  its  work  as  well  in  an 
alley  as  on  an  avenue.     You  can  have  clean  floors, 


66  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

a  clean  door-step,  whitewashed  walls,  vines  that 
creep  and  flowers  that  bloom.  Inexpensive 
appliances,  a  little  tact  and  a  good  deal  of  indus- 
try, in  which  your  children  may  be  the  principal 
actors,  will  make  your  badly  located  quarters  a 
place  of  beauty  and  full  of  the  influence  that 
teaches  without  voice  or  tongue.  Occasionally  an 
evening  or  a  holiday  ramble  into  the  nearest 
park  or  into  the  country  will  give  air  and  exer- 
cise and  chance  for  saying  some  things  that  will 
never  be  forgotten  by  those  you  love  best. 

Another  thing  you  can  do.  The  church  and 
the  school  are  open  to  you  and  to  your  children. 
Sermons  and  lessons  may  be  had  for  the  going 
to  the  place  in  which  they  are  given.  You  can 
send,  or,  better  still,  take  Tom  and  Kate,  and  all 
the  rest  to  the  sanctuary  and  let  them  hear  the 
preaching  and  join  in  the  singing  and  bow  rever- 
ently during  the  prayers.  You  can  put  them 
into  Sunday-school  and  into  day  school,  and  by 
a  little  wisdom  (which  plenty  of  people  nowadays 
are  glad  to  supply  you  with)  you  can  buy  cheap 
books  that  are  good  books.  Thus  you  may  get 
all  the  great  educational  agencies  at  work  on  and 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  67 

in  behalf  of  your  children.  And  your  home  life 
may  add  power  to  all  of  them. 

What  is  true  of  this  poor  woman  and  good 
for  her  children  will  be  equally  true  and  good  in 
the  case  of  the  well-to-do  and  the  "  middle  "  class 
people.  We  may  all  unite  in  building  up  great 
enterprises  religious,  and  educational,  and  at  the 
same  time  make  our  homes  helpers  of  these 
enterprises. 

When  twenty  families  on  a  street  keep  clean 
sidewalks  and  put  the  street  in  order  in  front  of 
their  own  houses,  a  work  that  amounts  to  a  pub- 
lic benefaction  has  been  well  begun.  The  com- 
munity that  rightly  estimates  the  teaching  power 
of  "conditions"  will  have  its  "village  improve- 
ment society"  for  the  planting,  training  and 
trimming  of  trees,  the  setting  in  order  of  streets, 
the  sweeping  of  sidewalks,  the  cultivating  of 
public  parks,  the  erection  of  monuments,  and 
the  following  of  true  art  in  the  erection  of  public 
buildings. 

How  much  one  good  well-kept  hotel  in  a 
town  will  do  toward  improving  the  rest  !  A 
display  of  taste  in  the  show  window  of  a  shop 
will  stir  up  to  similar  enterprise  all   the   other 


68  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

shop-keepers  in  the  same  line  of  business  or  in 
the  same  neighborhood.  Shop  windows  are 
text-books  in  art.  A  joint  protest  by  the  leading 
ladies  of  a  town  would  cause  the  removal  of 
corrupting  pictures  from  the  windows,  and  a 
similar  effort  would  promptly  induce  the  town 
authorities  to  prohibit  the  posting  of  show  bills 
of  an  objectionable  character. 

Combination,  persistency,  kindness,  could  in 
numberless  instances  develop  an  anti-saloon  and 
possibly  a  prohibition  spirit  even  among  our 
foreign  fellow-citizens,  who  have  never  seriously 
considered  the  question  of  the  rum  traffic  from 
the  American  Christian  point  of  view.  In  secur- 
ing such  an  end  what  an  important  educating 
"condition  "  would  be  promoted  ! 

Before  every  other  institution,  and  determin- 
ing its  power  for  good,  is  the  home.  We  start 
out  with  that  when  we  talk  about  church  and 
school.  We  come  back  to  that  again  almost 
immediately.  The  strong  cold  wind  cometh  out 
of  the  north  ;  soft  blow  the  breezes  from  the 
south  ;  but  the  all  pervading  atmospheres  that 
bless  or  curse  the  community  come  from  the 
homes  of  the  community. 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  69 

Would  you  help  the  church  ?  Begin  with  the 
home.  Let  authority  send  every  member  of  the 
family  to  the  sanctuary.  Always  speak  of  the 
church,  its  services,  its  pastor,  its  Sunday-school, 
with  reverence  and  charity.  Supplement  sermons 
and  lessons  with  home  instruction.  The  best 
direct  work  of  the  church  demands  the  perpetual 
influence  of  the  home. 

Would  you  help  the  day  school  ?  Begin  with 
the  home.  In  what  way  I  have  shown  on  the 
previous  pages. 

Would  you  develop  a  well-balanced  character 
and  make  your  children  truly  refined  and  culti- 
vated men  and  women  ?  Begin  with  the  home. 
Table  manners,  three  times  a  day,  on  all  the 
days,  whether  you  have  company  or  not,  have 
educating  power.  Gladstone  attributes  his 
present  vigor  (he  is  over  eighty)  to  the  fact  that 
he  has  practised  a  homely  little  hint  which  he 
heard  in  his  boyhood,  to  the  effect,  that  he  should 
chew  each  mouthful  of  meat  at  least  twenty-five 
times  before  he  swallowed  it.  What  a  blessing 
if  this  rule  were  suddenly  and  permanently  to 
go  into  operation  in  American  homes. 

Politeness  at  the  table,  the  right  use  of  fork 


JO  A  Stitdy  in  Pedagogy. 

and  napkin,  the  avoidance  of  all  uncomfortable 
themes  in  conversation,  the  habit  of  cheerful 
talk  and,  at  times,  of  hearty  laughter,  would 
promote  digestion  and  help  on  the  day's  work 
and  study.  Criticism,  fault-finding,  worrying  at 
meal  time,  have  caused  many  a  poor  recitation 
in  school  and  many  a  blunder  in  business.  So 
much  power  lies  in  "conditions." 

Pleasant  evenings  at  home,  spent  in  recreative 
rest,  are  an  education  for  society.  There  one  is 
taught  to  talk  and  to  listen,  to  play  and  to  sing, 
to  make  others  happy  and  to  be  made  happy  by 
others,  which  last  is  a  great  gift  and  a  rare  one. 
And  what  is  all  the  education  of  the  schools 
worth  if  one  who  has  it,  is  not  able  with  it  to 
bless  society  and  thus  to  brighten  the  lives  of 
people  ? 

In  controlling  the  social  educating  force  in  the 
family,  great  discrimination  and  much  independ 
ence  are  necessary.  Bad  people,  although  accom- 
plished and  attractive,  are  dangerous.  Frivolous 
people  are  almost  as  harmful.  They  weaken  the 
self-respect  of  those  who  entertain  them  and  set 
a  pernicious  example  before  children.  Better 
let  the  parlor  be  cold  and  dark  than  occupied  by 


A  Study  in  Pedagogy.  71 

other  than  people  of  heart  and  character.  After 
this  condition  is  met,  the  more  brains  and  the 
more  taste  the  better. 

It  is  important  in  the  work  of  education, 
wheresoever  and  by  whomsoever  carried  on,  to 
give  freedom  to  the  pupil.  He  must  be  let  atone  a 
great  deal.  Too  much  reining  in  is  bad  for  him. 
Bring  the  law  to  bear  on  him  at  stated  times  and 
then  let  it  bear  with  full  pressure.  But  give  him 
a  colt's  freedom.  If  he  gets  soiled  hands  and 
muddy  boots  and  trousers  **  not  fit  to  be  seen," 
let  him  come  home  to  a  hearty  "  Glad  to  see  you 
my  boy."  A  boy  who  does  not  soil  fingers,  boots 
and  trousers  now  and  then,  is  not  "  of  much 
account  "  as  we  Americans  say.  When  you  find 
him  in  the  midst  of  his  muddy  exploits  cheer 
him  on  with  a  sympathetic  "Isn't  that  fun?" 
But  when  the  time  comes  for  the  end  of  his  play, 
see  that  it  ends  promptly  and  that  the  washing 
up  is  thoroughly  done,  so  that  he  may  learn  the 
relations  between  restraint  and  freedom,  and 
cheerfully  submit  to  the  one  because  he  finds 
such  unqualified  delight  in  the  other. 

We  should  somehow  secure  the  occasional 
coming    together    of    all    those   whose    special 


72  A  Study  in  Pedagogy. 

responsibility  is  to  give  direct  instructions  and 
control  social  conditions.  I  have  in  mind  a  semi- 
annual meeting  in  a  small  town  or  city  of  all  the 
school  teachers,  pastors,  editors,  and  city  mayor 
and  council  to  discuss  in  a  frank  way  some  of 
the  educational  topics.  Political  and  denomina- 
tional complications  would  arise,  local  prejudice 
would  sometimes  be  excited,  but  I  believe  that 
on  the  whole  great  good  would  be  the  result. 

This  then  is  the  problem  of  pedagogy  :  How 
make  life  in  all  its  parts,  through  all  its  agencies, 
and  under  all  of  its  conditions  a  unity  tending 
toward  the  education  of  the  whole  people  ? 
The  school  has  power  but  its  power  is  slight 
unless  it  co-operates  with  other  educating  forces. 
And  these  other  forces  are  all  about  us. 

A  young  barrister  once  said  to  the  great 
Mason,  "  I  keep  my  room  to  read  law."  Mason 
answered  :  "  Read  law  !  It  is  in  the  court  room 
you  must  read  law."  Bulwer  Lytton  somewhere 
says  practically  the  same  thing  :  "  A  man  on  the 
whole  is  a  better  preceptor  than  a  book." 

Let  us  have  books  and  teachers  and  schools, 
but  let  us  have  churches  and  homes,  a  pure  jour- 


A  Study  in -Pedagogy.  73 

nalism,  libraries,  pictures,  laws,  social  customs, 
popular  sentiment, — all  of  which  will  combine  to 
commend  to  our  people  "  the  True,  the  Beauti- 
ful, and  the  Good." 


"SnnsMneforDartHoars," 

By  CHIRLES  F.  DEEMS,  D.D.,  ILD., 

Author  of  "  Weights  and  Wings,"  "Home  Altar,'"  etc., 
-md  Editor  of  " Christian  Thought." 


A  book  for  invalids.  The  matter  of  this 
book  is  drawn  from  a  wide  range  of  reading, 
observation  and  experience,  and  is  a  genu- 
ine aid  to  contentment,  comfort  and  relief. 

The  tone  of  the  book  is  indicative  of 
strength  gained  by  submission,  an  entire 
and  hearty  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God. 
It  will  brighten  dark  hours.  If  you  have 
sick  friends  brighten  their  rooms  and  hearts 
by  sending  a  copy  of  this  good  and  helpful 
book.  It  is  printed  in  large  type  and  clear 
page,  and  is  particularly  adapted  to  the  in- 
valid. 

Price,  25  Cents,  By  Mail,  30  Cents. 
WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Pnblisher, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


OTJE  REST  DAT, 

ITS    ORIGIN,     HISTORY,     AND     CLAIMS,     WITH 

SPECIAL  REFERENCE   TO  PRESENT 

DAY  NEEDS. 


THOMAS  HAMILTON,  D.D. 

The  New  York  Christian  Advocate  says: 
In  the  book  we  find  the  entire  subject  of 
"Sabbath  observance"  most  thoroughly  and 
candidly  considered.  All  the  popular  argu- 
ments for  relaxation  of  the  plain  Bible  com- 
mand are  met  and  treated  at  length.  The 
chapters  are  headed,  "How  Old  Art  Thou  ?" 
"Traces  of  the  Sabbath  in  Ancient  Lands  and 
Literature,"  "A  Curious  Theory," '  "The  Sab- 
bath not  a  Jewish  Institution,"  The  Deca- 
logue and  the  Sal)bath , "  '  'Christ  and  tlie  Sab- 
bath," "The  Apostles  and  the  Sabbath,"  "The 
Change  of  Day,"  The  Church  of  Rome  and 
the  Sabbath."  and  then  the  author  turns  to 
the  various  methods  of  trade  and  amuse- 
ment to  infringe  upon  the  "Rest  Day."  Tvro 
chapters  have  been  added  upon  '  'How  the 
Conflict  Goes  On,"  and  "The  Conclusion  of 
the  Whole  Matter."  Any  one  who  wishes 
information  upon  this  subject,  now  one  of 
the  foremost  in  popular  interest,  will  find 
this  little  book  of  practical  value. 

Rev.  C.  H.  Sjntrgeon  says:  "Other  works 
have  been  good,  but  none  could  have  been 
better.  It  is  as  interesting  as  it  is  instruct- 
ive, and  we  give  it  our  hearty  praise." 

12  mo.   Cloth,    185  pp.,  Price,  75  Cents. 

WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Pnblislier; 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  NATURE 

By  H.  C.  McCOOK,  D.D., 

Vice-President  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia, 

Author  of  "Agricultural  Ant  of  Texas."  "Tenants 

of  an  Old  Farm,"  and  "The  Money  and 

Occident  Ants.^' 


A  series  of  popular  discourses  on  Scrip- 
ture truths  derived  from  facts  in  nature. 

N.  Y.  Observer  says : — They  are  written 
somewhat  in  the  vein  of  Professor  Drum- 
mond's  "  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual 
World,"  and  will  be  welcomed  by  intelli- 
gent readers  who  are  awake  to  the  discus- 
sion which  is  going  on  in  the  world  over 
the  Book  of  Books  and  the  Book  of  Nature. 

Interior. — The  author  ranges  through 
earth  and  air,  finding  exemplifications  of 
the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  Almighty 
Creator  in  the  bail  and  snow,  the  rain  and 
the  rainbow,  flowers  and  vines,  and  show- 
ing both  forcibly  and  beautifully,  how  the 
elements  of  nature  can  be  used  to  illustrate 
and  work  out  the  Divine  Will,  and  the 
knowledge  of  that  will  toward  man. 

John  Hall,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York. — 
"  It  takes  faiLiiliar  facts  from  the  works  of 
God  and  employs  them,  with  learning  and 
devoutness,  for  the  illustration  of  vital 
truths,  only  learned  from  the  word  of  God. 
Dr.  McCook  has  here,  as  elsewhere,  used 
his  talent  for  natural  history  wisely  and 
effectively;  and  his  work  is  practical  and 
adapted  to  our  times. 

12  mo.,  Cloth,    380  pp.    Price  $1.25  net. 

WILBUR  BrKETCHAM,  Pnblisher, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


TWENTY-EIGHTH  EDITION 

REVISED  AND  ENLARGED. 

THE  KING'S  SON 

OR 

A  MEMOIR  OF  BILLY  BEAY, 

By  F.  W.  BOURNE. 

Of  Billy  Bray,  the  famous  Methodist 
preacher  of  Cornwall,  England,  it  may  be 
truly  said  "  he  yet  speaketh,"  although  he 
has  been  dead  for  more  than  twenty  years 
It  is  reported  that  at  least  six  hun- 
dred persons  are  known  to  have  been  led 
to  Christ  by  reading  his  biography,  en- 
titled "  The  King's  Son  or  a  Memoir  of 
Billy  Bray."  These  converts  are  found 
in  all  parts  of  the  world  and  come  from 
almost  every  position  in  life.  Noted  in- 
fidels, eminent  formalists,  and  cultivated 
scholars,  as  well  as  obscure  and  unlearned 
men,  have  been  drawn  into  the  kingdom 
of  grace  by  this  fascinating  story.  The 
most  noted  preacher  of  the  age  frequently 
finds  the  striking  illustrations  which  en- 
rich his  sermons  in  the  life  of  Billy  Bray. 
A  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  this  popu- 
lar biography  has  just  been  published. 
Although  this  is  the  twenty-eighth  large 
edition,  there  is  no  abatement  of  the 
sale.  The  editor,  F.  W.  Bourne,  has  done 
his  work  well. 

12  mo.,  Clotli.    160  pp.    Price,  75  Cents. 

WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Publisher, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 
AGENTS  WANTED. 


